Hookah is the Hindi term for a single or multi-stemmed instrument used for smoking tobacco, in which the smoke is filtered and cooled by passing through water. Originally from India, hookah pipes are also smoked widely in the Middle East and are gaining popularity worldwide – notably in Europe, North America and Australia.

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" Ay, but that man had right and reason, for Krishna himself appeared in a vision promising him Paradise "

Krishna is one of the most powerful and popular of the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Preserver or Sustainer of life in the Hindu Trinity of deities. The word Krishna translates as ‘black’, and Krishna’s dark complexion is thought to connote his mystical and mysterious nature.

Krishna is often depicted as an infant; a handsome young man playing a flute, as in the Bhagavata Purana; or a warrior-prince and military advisor as in the Mahabharata.

This anglo-centric summary of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 is given by a native officer who had fought on the British side during the uprising. For his loyalty, the man would have received an Indian Mutiny Medal, pictured.

The 1857 Sepoy Mutiny is also called India's First War of Independence, as it was the first concerted, large-scale attempt to overthrow British rule in India.

Various factors have been proposed as having led to the mutiny, including financial grievances within the East India Company army and rumours of British evangelicals conducting mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. It is widely agreed, however, that the immediate cause lay in the controversy over the ammunition for the newly introduced Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite open cartridges greased with lard or tallow. This was rumoured to be pork or beef fat, a gross violation of Muslim and Hindu religious strictures.

The revolt began on 10 May, 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other uprisings and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with major hostilities taking place in present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh and the Delhi region. The new ruler was proposed to be Mughal king Bahadur Shah II.

The British response to the uprising was met with widespread approval at home, but is viewed today as unjustifiably brutal. By 1858, the British “Army of Retribution” – with its large-scale massacres and take-no-prisoners policy – had brought a bloody end to the mutiny. Shortly after, the East India Company was formally dissolved and its ruling powers over India transferred to the British Crown.